Method of making envelopes



Feb. 22 1927.

' l J. G. SWAB METHOD OF MAKING ENVELOPES Filed June 1926 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 ATTORNEY Patented Feb. 22, 1927.

METHQD OF MAKING ENVELOPES.

Application filed June 3 9, 1826.

My invention relates to a novel method of making envelopes of the type in which a fastener is applied to the body of the envelope to co-operate with an aperture or eyelet applied to the flap of the envelope. lit is common practice to make envelopes adapted to be sent through the mails unsealed, with a metal fastener attached to the body of the envelope at the back wall near the flap end, and these fasteners have consisted of several types, one of which comprises an eyelet portion which is riveted through the wall of the envelope and on the exterior there are oppositely projecting lugs or fingers which are adapted to be bent upwardly to pass through the aperture or eye-- let in the flap and afterwards bent down on the outer surface of the flap to secure the latter in folded position against the back wall of the envelope. As stated above, various other types of metal fasteners have been used, and while I prefer to illustrate my invention in connection with the particular form here described, it will be understood that the method maybe adopted in the making of envelopes having other forms of fas- I teners. It has been common practice, also, to provide an aperture in the fiap as above set forth, to receive the prongs of the fastener, and the flap isusually reinforced by applying patchesor discs of paper or cardboard to the flap around the aperture.

The method employed for manyyears .in

' the making of such envelopes has resulted in considerable waste due to rejections on .account of the fold or crease of the flap being improperly positioned, so that when the flap was folded upon the rear wall of the envelope, the eyelet of the flap did not accurately register with the metal fastener. Not only have there been material losses caused by rejections, but in the manufacture of these envelopes it has been necessary to in spect them in order, as far as possible, to eliminate such envelopes as were not accurately made. In this former method of manufacture, the envelopev was first formed to comprise the body portion and the flap projecting from one end thereof, and at the same time the crease was formed on the line on which the flap was intended to be folded. All of this was done on the envelope machine. After the envelope was thus made Serial No. 119,658.

with the crease line formed, it was applied to the machine which attached the metal fastener and formed the reinforced aperture in the flap. If, after these parts were attachcd to the envelope and flap, thecrease line l'iappened to come exactly midway between the centerofthe metal fastener and the eyelet, the flap could be folded over, and the eyelet would register properly with the metal fastener. In many cases, however, this crease which was previously formed was not accurately positioned, i. e., it was either not midway between the center of the fastener and the eyelet, or it was slightly diagonal in relation to the flap, and in such cases it was necessary to cull outtheenvelopes inaccurately made, if inspection disclosed any error, or else such envelopes were likely to be rejected by the customers of the manufacturer.

Under mypresent method I am able to avoid the necessity for inspection and to entirely avoid rejections due to the inaccuracies above referred to. This is accomplished broadly by forming the crease or fold for the flap simultaneously with the attachment of the fastener to the envelope and thef'ormation of the eyelet. As the fastener and eyelet' are attached simultaneously by mechanical means, the distance between the center of the fastener and the center of the eyelet is always uniform on any givensize envelope and under my method the crease or fold is preferably formed simultaneously with the application of the fastener and the formation of the eyelet, so that the crease will always be formed exactly midway between thetwo centers. As a result, when the flap is folded on the crease line, the eyelet and the fastener will always register. This is true even though the crease line is not exactly at right angles with the side edges of the envelope.

l v hile various mechanisms may be used for carrying out my improved method, I have illustrated in the accompanying drawings parts of an ordinary known machine for applying fasteners to envelopes, wherein I have applied certain additional mechanism for carrying out the present method.

In the drawings forming part of this application,

Figure. 1 is a front elevation of portions oi. an envelope fastener applying machine embodying the parts necessary to carry out my process,

Figure 2 is a plan view of the parts shown in Figure 1,

Figure 3 is a rear elevation of an envelope prepared for receiving the fastener and eyelet in accordance with my invention,

Figure a is a similar view of the envelope alter the F ame has been treated according to the present process, and Fig. 5 is a detail viewot one of the end frame members of my machine.

In Figure 3 l have shown a common type of envelope to which fasteners are usually applied. In this view the rear wall 2 oi the envelope 1 is shown, the overlapping edges 3 of this wall being glued r pasted together to extend lengthwise of the envelope and the lower end a is .t'olded over and secured against the roar v-xall. lit the op iiotite end of the envelope the front wall t is carried for ard to form a tlap which projects heyond. the end 7 of the rear wall sutiiciently to permit the tlap to be folded over and to overlap one end of the back wall Under the present process the envelope, as shown in Figure 3, remains uncreased at the base of the flap as it comes from the envelope machine, whereas in present practice there is usually a crease termed acro s the base oi the ilap and adjacent the corners 8 where the upper edge 'l' of the hacl; wall of the envelope merges with the base of the flap. 1n Figured l have shown an euve lope which has been completed according to my present method. In this view the envelope (litters from that of Figure in the fact that the fastener 9 which consists ot' an eyelet portion 10, which is riveted through the rear wall of the envelope at the line of overlap and of the laterally extending tingers or prongs 11 which are adapted to he hent up away from the envelope and to he hent huclc wardly again, is applied to the back wall :5. In addition, the flap is here shown as provided with an aperture '12 'lforminp; the eyelet to receive the prongs or fingers 11 ot the fastener, and this eyelet is here shown as re: inforced in well known manner by means ot patches 13 appliedto the opposite faces 01 the fiap and surrounding the aperture l2.

The crease 14: on which the envelope flap is adapted to he folded over against the hack wall of the envelope formed exactly mid way between the center oi. the lirtener eye let it) and the center of the aperture 1'2, so that when the flap is folded upon this reuse line, the aperture 12 and fastener will register and therefore the prongs ll l may he hunt upwardly and passed through the aperture 12 without distorting the flap or the en velope. So far as the finished product is concerned, it has the some appearance as an envelope finished under the old method, pro-- vided the latter is carried out accuratelv. It will be apparent that it the crease line ll- ;is formed previous to the attachment of the fastener and the formation of the aperture 12, and it this crease line should happen to be nearer the center ofthe fastener 9 than the center of the aperture 1 by one-shatecnth of an inch for instance, then when the flap was :ifolded on this crease line the aperture and the fastener will he out 0t register in this instance one-eighth ot an inch because when the flap folded over the error is multiplied by two. that is to say, it the crease line ll lli; nearer the center of the fastener 5) by one-sixteenth of an inch, it is also one-sixteenth of an inch farther from the center oil the aperture 12, so that the inaccuracy of registry between these parts hecoincs one-eighth oi an inch. in the pres ent method the crease line ll: is in all cases exactly mid *ay hctween the center of the fastener S) and the center or the aperture 12 at the point 15 so that when the llap is tolded the aperture 12 and the iastener 9 always register with each other and it is thereiore unnecessary to distort the flap or the envclope in order to clone the attachment, and it is unnecessary to form a new crease line for the purpose.

In Figures 1 and 2 I have shown parts of a machine :lfor attaching the fasteners to the envelope and reference may be had to the U. S. patent to \V. Richardson dated Dec. 3, i918, and numbered 1,286,413, for the illustration of the complete machine for pen forming this operation. In the drawings herein I have shown the tube 16 which carries the arm 17 extending at right angles to the tuhe 16 and it is provided on its outer end with a raised portion 18 which forms an anvil by means oi? which the eyelet of the lastener ada itcd to be upset or riveted. There is a plunger 19 guided in a tu hular support L0 and the :torward end of this plunger is adapted to co-operate with the anvil 18 to upset the rivet in the operation o'lF attaching the fastener to the envelope. Generally, the anvil arm 17 is stationary, whereas the plunger 19 moves in relation to it. The support 16 which carries the anvil arm Forum a guide for a plunger :21 which is adapted to apply one of the patches or reinforcement pieces 13 to the eyelet in the flap of the envelope. There is another tuhular support arranged in axial alignment with the support 16 and there is a plunger 23 sliding in this support, and it serves to apply one oi the patches 13 to the opposite side oi the flap to the one applied by he plunger 21. The parts just descrihed are all common to at least one .lrnown form of attaching machine.

In addition to the parts described, I have added a stationary male creasin member 21. shown in Figures 1 and 2, and it is of suliicient length to form the creaseacross the flap of the widest envelope the machine is adapted to handle. I have shown this creasing member supported at top and bottom upon bars 25, 26 which are connected by the end-frames 27 to form a rigid rectangular support. This creasing member is provided with a slot 28 through which the anvil arm 17 extends so that the forward edge 29 of his creasing member is continuous; and in the preferred construction this forward edge is made with a V shape as shown in the drawings,'in order to constitute the male member of the creasing device. There is another creasing member 30 mounted parallel with the member 241 and also supported on the upper and lower rods 25, 26 but this member is adapted to slide on these bars or rods toward and from the stationary member In order to provide for moving this creasing member, I have shown a toggle lever arrangement in Figure 1. There are short brackets 31 secured in fixed positions respectively to the upper and lower bars 25, 26 behind the movable creasing member 30. At the point 32 there is pivoted to this bracket a lever arm 33 and these two lever arms come together near the vertical center of the creasing device and are provided at their overlapping ends with longitudinal slots 3% in which engages-a driving pin 35. This pin is guided in a horizontal slot 36 in the tubular support 22 and it is moved simultaneously with and by the plunger 23 which may be operated by the mechanism shown in said patent. Attached to each lever arm 33 by a pivotal connection 3'7 is a connecting link 38 and the opposite ends of these are pivotedat 39 to the movable creasing member 30. As the plunger 23 is moved to the left in Figures 1 and 2, the pin 35 acts upon the overlapping ends of the levers and these levers, pivoting at the points 32 act through the links .38 to move the creaser bar 30 to the left; and upon a reverse movement of the plunger 22 the levers 33 are reversed in movement and the creaser bar30 is moved to the right in the drawing. Usually the plunger 23 moves. about one inch in extent and the movement is reduced through the levers 33 so that the creaser bar 30 need only move about three-eighths of an inch. These proportions are merely stated to indicate one desirable form of device which may be used in carrying out my method. The forward or active edge of the creaser bar 30 is provided with a V shape crotch 40 which co-operates with the edge 29 of the other creaser bar, so that these two edges compress the envelope material between them for the purpose of forming the crease 14.

In carrying out my method, the envelope is applied to the machine in the manner shown in Figure 2, by placing the flap 5 between the plungersl2l, 23, with the portion of theanvil arm 17 which protrudes through the creasing bar 24 inserted within the open end of the envelope until the corners 8 come up againstithe edge 29 of the male creaser member, this being the method of gauging the position of the envelope in relation to the attaching device. In thisposition, the anvil 18 faces the rear wall of the envelope at the inside thereof, and the plunger 19 is in line with the anvil. The active edges of the creasing bars in Figure 2 are exactly halfway between the axial lines of the plunger 19 and anvil 18 and the axial line of the plungers 21, 28. Preferably the envelope contacts with the stationary plunger 21, with the creasing edge of the malemember 24; and with the anvil 18. It will be understood that one of the metal fasteners is threaded onto the projecting end of the plunger 19 and that each plunger 21, 23 is supplied with a strip of patch material suitably supplied with adhesive, all. of which maybe as shown in said patent. As the machine is set into operation to apply the fastener and the patches, the following actions take place: The plunger 19 carrying the metal fastener approaches the anvil 18 presenting the oylindrical portion of the fastener through-the rear wall 2 of the envelope, until the inner end of this cylindrical portion of the fastener strikes the anvil; and a continuation of the movement causes the same to be upset or riveted against the inner surface of the back wall 2 so that when the plunger 19 has completed its movement, the fastener will have been attached to the envelope. While this movement is taking place, the plunger 23 is also moving to the left in F igures 1 and 2, so that a patch 13 is applied by both plungers 21, 23 to the intermediate flap and surrounding the opening 12. In some cases the aperture 12 may be formed by an interior punch at the time the patches are pressed against the wall of the flap. When the plunger'23 moves to the left in the operation just described, the creaser bar 30 is also moved to the left, so that at the moment the plunger 19 and the plunger 23 complete their movements, the wall of the envelope is compressed between the edges 29, 40 of the creasing members, so that the crease let is formed while the envelope is held by the plunger 19 by the anvil 18 and the plungers 21, 23. As a resultof this the crease 14 is certain to be positioned exactly midway between the center of the eyelet and the center of the metal fastener, at least at the point 15 in Figure 1. After the attaching and creasing operations have been completed, the plungers and the female creaser are retracted and the envelope withdrawn ready for the operation to be repeated with another envelope.

By forming the crease simultaneously with the application of the fastener or of the eye- ]et, but preferably simultaneouslywith both of these operations, itis possible to position the crease with such accuracy that when the flap is folded on this crease the eyelet and fastener will always register. The operation is so dependable that it is unnecessary to inspect or examine the product for the position of: the crease line as this is always accurately positioned under my method. It

will be understood that other mechanism than that described herein may be used in carrying out the method, the principle of which resides in the formation of the flap crease simultaneously with the attachment claim is:

1. A method of the character described which consists of applying fastenin means to an envelope having a flap, and in ormlng a crease on which the fla is adapted to be folded, simultaneously with the attachment of thefastening means to the envelope.

2. A method of t-heclass described which consists of applying closing means to one wall and to the flap of an envelope, and in forming a crease on which the flap is adapted to be folded, while the flap and envelope are engaged by means )assing through the wall. of the envelope and said liap.

A method of the class described which consists of applying a fastener to the wall of an envelope, simultaneously applying eyelet means to the flap of the envelope, and simultaneously therewith torn'iing a crease on which the flap is adapted to be folded, said crease being disposed midway between the center of said fastening means and the center of said eyelet means.

Signed this 10th day of J 11119, 1926, at the city, county and State of New York.

JAY e. swAB, 

